


In the Night

by Twilight_PhoenixFyre



Series: Before the Guardians [3]
Category: Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Drabbles, Gen, Mostly Ripples compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 16:31:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17853143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_PhoenixFyre/pseuds/Twilight_PhoenixFyre
Summary: A series of drabbles for the r/fanfiction Discord Server's Drabble Night.Prompts: Dreaming, Fireworks, Full Moon, In the Dark, Lullaby, Stargazing





	1. Dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> ...I don't do drabbles, usually, and I joined the whole Drabble Night thing too late to actually submit for all six prompts, but I wrote for all of them anyway and now they're getting posted here because all but one of them is canon-compliant for the Ripples Trilogy.
> 
> This first one, you can stick just about anywhere chronologically between the end of An Echo through Time and the third or fourth Chapter of A Fractured Dream (Book 2 of Lights Trilogy), since that's when Kairi gets confirmation that Lloyd's started the Journey.

_She was flying again. Over the plains and the desert... Why was she going south?_

_She stopped and looked around, and spotted something in the distance. Movement. A group of five, fighting monsters._

_Ah, there was her son. Along with Colette, and Raine, and Genis, and Kratos. She leaned forward and continued on her journey. Bandits, that’s what they were fighting._

_Her green and gold wings drew eyes to her, and one of the bandits raised his bow. Kairi twisted midair to dodge the arrow—_

 

—and landed on the floor in a tangle of limbs.

 

...One day, she promised herself.


	2. Fireworks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is actually post-Future Arcs; the first New Years' Eve after the crossover section happens where Amethyst meets Lloyd and gets a bit of sense knocked into him (these two may be exclusive of each other).

Amethyst was oddly silent tonight.

 

“A gald for your thoughts?” she asked her nephew. Jade’s son looked at her, but his brown eyes found the ground again quickly enough.

 

“It’s just... different this year,” he said finally.

 

Thinking back over everything that had happened, she thought she could understand why. “Well, look at it this way. New year, new start.”

 

His laugh was strained, awkward. “Easy for you to say.”

 

Kairi nodded. “Maybe so. But being gloomy about it won’t solve anything.”

 

Multi-colored stars rained down from the night sky, the noise nearly drowning out Amethyst’s quiet reply.

 

“...Fair enough.”


	3. Full Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one gets alluded to in A Twilight Star (Book 3) for a bit before Kairi outright tells everyone when they end up on Auldrant, but this happens fairly shortly after Lloyd reunites the worlds.

She was waiting for them when their boat reached the island the night of the full moon. As much as she’d love to find Lloyd, logic said she was needed here.

 

So what if she was screwing things up? She’d already done that _exponentially_ on Auldrant, and on Aselia by way of Danté. So, yes. She was going to get involved and make a wicked mess of things again.

 

Her specialty, really...

 

“Huh? Who the heck are you?”

 

She turned around and offered up a smile to the blonde.

 

Here they were, Aster and Richter.

 

And so they would stay.


	4. In the Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Implied sex warning. This happens a little over ten years after the end of An Echo through Time. (Yes. I know. I'm being oddly specific with this one.)

They didn’t get enough moments like these anymore. Not since Reighn (the jerk) had sent that damn paper around to get signed. Not since she’d gone from leading Daath’s military, to leading the whole fragging _country_.

 

Being able to teleport helped, but even then, the most they usually managed was a kiss and some snuggling.

 

Which was why the faint ache in her abdomen had her in a happy little haze. Asch hadn’t been gentle tonight.

 

Not that she was complaining.

 

She missed all the little things they used to do in the dark together.

 

This physical pain was nothing.


	5. Lullaby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the one that fails to be canon compliant! Warning; (implied) Major Character Death.
> 
> (This is also one of the two that I did manage to submit.)

Red. It filled his eyes, but the stars dotted through the red told him where he was, as if the blue dancing at the edges of his vision didn’t.

 

Everything hurt.

 

Why was he here? Where was Genis? Kratos? Zelos?

 

“...Lloyd?”

 

He knew that voice. “...Mom?” His own was hoarse, like he’d been screaming. Had he?

 

Orange fell into his blurring vision, and something splashed against his cheek. “Shh... Rest, Lloyd.”

 

Oh. She was crying.

 

_“I will raise you underneath the stars~”_

 

The familiar lullaby brought a smile to his face. It had been years, but it was still enough...


	6. Stargazing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kairi sort-of explains some of the mechanics behind the TimeStream looking the way it does, here. This was the other one I got to submit, and it, again, is canon-compliant. As with the first, stick it anywhere between AEtT and the Future Arcs.

“You know what I don’t understand?”

 

She looked away from the patterns she was tracing in the stars. “Hm?”

 

Jade sat next to her and tilted his head back, red eyes searching the stars in the red-violet sky as if they held the answers. “This is supposed to be an in-between dimension, isn’t it? So why...”

 

She smiled and pointed up to the sky above. “See the places where they’re really concentrated? Now, look at that thinner patch there. What do you see?”

 

She knew he’d seen it when she heard the sharp intake of breath.

 

“That’s _our_ night sky.”


End file.
